Quicktime 7.2 update – be afraid.

Yesterday Apple released iTunes 7.3.1 and Quicktime 7.2. With updated h.264 transcoding, numerous bug fixes and free fullscreen support for those without Quicktime Pro. It also provides iPhone exporting options and seems to enable 640×480 captures from certain iSights which were limited to 320×240.

Oh, and it breaks Rosetta.

Ok, not to be overly sensational, it does not break Rosetta for everyone, but a large number of users are reporting issues opening PowerPC applications on Intel Macs post Quicktime 7.2 update. It seems as though installing the OS X 10.4.10 Combo updater after installing Quicktime 7.2 has fixed the issue for some.

Yeah, seriously, looks like it might be worth skipping this one. And does anyone else get the feeling the tail is wagging the dog as far as iTunes releases driving QuickTime updates? Is there any logical reason why Apple needs to release this many minor updates in the first place?

"well the update corrupted every QuickTime file on my external HD. I lost every movie I've ever made, every film school project I ever worked on, and the trailer I'm currently editing. I cried."

Not sure I'd advise his backup plan, but I do wonder what he's talking about … it seems more likely that QT itself is corrupted, though that would still be an issue.

apple developer

Yet another example of Apple focusing way too much on the iPhone recently and not enough on the actual mac computer platform and users experiences there.

If you haven't been following the conversations on the apple developer forums, apple is working behind the scenes to screw over long time developers who want to build products based on Carbon api technology and could really care less about CFM support. So in some respects i think their internal response to CFM apps not working will be, so what, customers should just replace them with intel native apps

Well, I dont think id go that far. There was a very interesting thread on Arstechnica's forum regarding CFM/Carbon support for *64* bit, which is what I believe you are referring to. Not all carbon classes and libraries will make it to 64bit land. I dont believe this has anything to do with the recent snafu which was one of many QC issues Apple has had in the past regarding delta updaters versus combo updaters.

And by the way, Intel native is by no means referring to Carbon vs Cocoa. You probably *mean* Cocoa (a lot of people say Native when they mean Cocoa), and, if you mean Cocoa, you should know that lower level Cocoa calls actually call CFM/Carbon.

I think you having your Apple Developer moniker makes it kind of clear you don't know what you are talking about while making such claims, with all due respect…

apple developer

With all due respect, I do indeed know the distinction between Carbon and Cocoa, and to be honest the link at arstechnica kind of downplays the whole 64bit issue for existing Carbon developers and barely scratches the surface of the extensive discussion that has gone on at apple's carbon developer forum and the pent up anger that many long time apple developers are feeling towards the company these days.

The point to my somewhat 'pissy' previous rant is that if you look at the long history of apple computer they have gone through mood swings of being very responsive to their users and developers and being rather arrogant and unresponsive, and with the success of the ipod and iphone my personal take is that they are swinging to the arrogant part of that cycle again. I see the 64bit developer issue, pushback of the 10.5 release, and issues like quickly released Quicktime updates knocking out CFM apps as all part of a broader issue of apple starting to lose focus on properly serving their existing computer customer base as they focus on new markets like the iphone.

And i'm being very sincere when i say that my personal take on what is going on at infinite loop these days is that some people in high level positions there could really care less about continued support for things like older non-native CFM apps, so the fact the a Quicktime release broke them is probably no big deal in their minds. I hope that's not the case but…

One of my biggest fears is that we will all wake up some day and apple has decided that their computer line should really be thought of as an appliance for iApps and apple professional apps, end of story, lets not worry about those pesky third part apps. That may seem absurd to you, but when iphones and ipods end up making 70% of apple's bottom line it might not be such an absurd thing to happen, at least not from from the standpoint of a high level executive at apple computer.

You make it sound as though Apple had planned QT 7.2 to take out CFM. Thats pretty obviously not the case, considering that the update does not effect all users.

Apologies for being somewhat patronizing, but I think your fears are somewhat unfounded. Apple is in the best position it as ever been in (perhaps only 1984 tops the recent comeback). It has *truly* competitive hardware, the highest market-share Apple has been privy to in a long time and a truly modern OS with a new release around the corner that has some significant performance increases (spotlight is wondrously faster, the Finder is (mostly) fixed and Quickview seems surprisingly handy). Anyway, this isnt the forum for this discussion, but I'd say you have little to worry about wrt Apple ditching OS X and 3rd Party App support.

Now, quality control and respecting interface design guidelines, then youd have a point.

zilkey

This broke quicken 2007 on my machine – I'm not sure I have any other CFM apps, but losing my books is not fun…

I'm surprised no one here has mentioned here the problems that Quicktime 7.2 has with Applescript, Apple's own scripting language. Quite a few of the scripts in Apple's own script suite for Quicktime don't work with QT 7.2, and those of us who integrate Quicktime Player into our workflow through AppleScript (in my case by automating the process of making reference movies from folders of time-lapse still images) have had to revert to QT 7.1.6 . This isn't a case of Apple showing arrogance to third party developers but to its own development platform. Despite pretty widespread complaints about this issue, Apple hasn't even acknowledged that there is a problem.